With hot-tempered captain Adam Foote leading the way, the relatively young Avalanche used a veteran lineup Wednesday in its second preseason game.
A night after mostly playing rookies and other youngsters in a 3-1 victory at St. Louis, a more seasoned Colorado squad lost to Los Angeles 4-2 in a penalty- filled contest at the Pepsi Center.
Foote, 39, committed four of the Avs’ 14 penalties. That’s half of what the Kings served, which helps explain why Colorado was outshot 42-23.
Foote twice got into whistle- causing scrums with Kings winger John Zeiler in the first period. Both times, Foote dropped at least one glove, but Zeiler wasn’t interested in fighting and went unpenalized, leading to two Kings power plays.
In November 2008, Zeiler received a three-game suspension for an illegal check on Foote, who missed nine games because of neck and knee injuries from the hit.
“There’s obviously some history there, and when you’re a competitive guy like Footie, sometimes things will happen like that,” Avs coach Joe Sacco said. “But the time to do it is the preseason; you wouldn’t do that in the regular season.”
Penalties kept the Avs’ top lines from playing together much. Among those making their preseason debuts were forwards Matt Duchene, Peter Mueller, Milan Hejduk, Chris Stewart and Paul Stastny.
Winger TJ Galiardi and defensemen Kyle Quincey and David Liffiton are the only Avs to play in both games.
“It’s nice to be back out there together with our lines — the same lines we played with at the end of last year — but we really didn’t get that many shifts because of all the penalties,” Galiardi said. “We have a ways to go before we’re on the same page.”
Grahame in goal.
The Avs used No. 1 goalie Craig Anderson for the first 31 minutes before bringing in John Grahame, 35, a Denver native.
Grahame allowed three goals on 24 shots. He signed a minor-league contract with the Avs late last season and played in 14 games for the club’s American Hockey League affiliate before serving as Colorado’s No. 3 goalie during the playoffs.
Tied at 2-2, Grahame overslid across the crease on the game- winning goal, a nice cutback move by former Av Brad Richardson early in the third period.
Grahame said he “felt pretty good. It’s good to be back, especially in Denver because I’m from here.”
Footnote.
Former DU defenseman Patrick Mullen played for the Kings. Mullen, son of Hockey Hall of Famer Joe Mullen, graduated from DU in 2009.
Mike Chambers, The Denver Post
